Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Three Types of Redundancy to Avoid

Redundancy in a sentence is
annoying, and it is also a nuisance. Conveying information in more than one
way, or by repeating wording, is consciously or subconsciously distracting to
the reader and contributes to compositional clutter. Note in the discussions
and revisions following each example how the sentence in question can be
improved by deleting such infelicities.1. Like Smith,
Jones also owns a family-run business.

When an additive word or
phrase such as like
or “in addition to” introduces a sentence, using also to bridge the complementary phrases is
redundant: “Like Smith, Jones owns a family-run business.”

2. Many components,
such as asset balance, deposit balance, and interest income, etc., should be
sensitive to the change in the macroeconomic environment.

Use of a phrase like “such
as” or “for example” (or the corresponding abbreviation e.g.) is redundant to etc. (or “and so on”):
“Many components, such as asset balance, deposit balance, and interest income,
should be sensitive to the change in the macroeconomic environment.” (Or “Many
components—asset balance, deposit balance, and interest income, etc.—should be
sensitive to the change in the macroeconomic environment.”) Note, however, that
i.e., which
means “that is” (or “that is” itself), pertains to clarification and not to
listing of examples, so it is not redundant to etc.

3. But the policy
is not solely about consumers; it is about what the law calls a data subject. A
data subject is defined as a living individual to whom personal data relates.

Avoid ending one sentence
and beginning the subsequent sentence with the same word or phrase, which
generally occurs when a word or phrase is introduced and then immediately
defined: “But the policy is not solely about consumers; it is about what the
law calls a data subject, which is defined as a living individual to whom
personal data relates.”

Unless your degree is a B Ed, you do. Even then, I have
heard students tell me “They didn’t teach us that in Teachers’ College!”Our courses are very comprehensive. When a
school hires you, they want to know that you have specific training for the age
level you are going to be teaching. Also, the chances are that you will be
teaching overseas where English is not the first language so you will be
teaching English (ESL) to students who have very little knowledge of English
grammar, sentence structure, as well as idioms and expressions. Our courses
teach you 24 + different methodologies you can use depending on your particular
class or situation.

If you hope to be teaching in Western Europe (very
tough unless you are from the UK or EU and an experienced teacher), choose the
TEFL Certificate. It is good in Asia, too, particularly if the school prefers
to teach British English.

If you want to teach in Latin America, or in Asia in a
school that teaches American English, choose the TESOL Certificate.